Laser pup

[Joe] sent us this project called Laser Pup. After seeing many other projects with the ioBridge like beer pouring and dog treat dispensing, he wanted to make his own. His project allows him to play with his dog via a ceiling mounted laser pointer. We know, you were hoping for something more along the lines of Laser Cats, but this is still pretty cool. He built a web interface specifically for the iPhone to control the laser, room lights, and show a live feed of the puppy playing. You can see a video of it in action after the break.

Uh this will most likely end up with your dog becomeing obsessed with chaseing spots of lights, shadows, and imaginary laser dots. It is very common for playing with dogs with flashlights or laser pointers to develop into CCD (canine compulsive disorder stereotypy. Is your amusement worth rendering your dog in a constant state of anxiety?

Some people say that because the dogs can never catch the dot, they become neurotic and obsessed about it. The dog would continue searching after the dot even when the laser has been turned off, freaking out at shimmering lights, sudden sounds, etc. Possibly for extended periods of time after the stimulation has stopped. Might be true in some cases. I wouldn’t play with it for too long, as it seems fun for the human but I’m not sure the animal actually enjoys it, it’s more like a frustration which can never be released.

i’m aware of the potential problems associated with laser pointers and dogs, and have always paid close attention to how he behaves. for my dog this has never been an issue, and thus the reason i built it. but every animal is different.

Just as a general note, in firefox you can select the menu view->page style->no style to remove the page’s CSS temporarily, that causes the ‘make-everything-lowercase’ to no longer work and you can see the comments in their original form, in case you need to, for some case-sensitive links for instance.
And as a note to the web-admin: you can supply alternative CSS’s that then become selectable so people can choose a page layout, although very very few sites offer that choice, it’s a pity really.
Here’s an example: http://www.w3.org/Style/

Does it bother anyone else that the X axis on the controller and the apparent image through the camera are opposite? I mean, it may make sense for how the servo is wired up, but I’d personally flip it so that the laser dot moves to the right in the camera’s view when I, y’know, move the control to the right?

Aside from that little quibble this looks awesome! Seeing it mounted where a ceiling light had been makes me think of an adaptation for a home alarm – imagine a burglar entering a home – only to have laser-pods shining dots on them in response to the alarm activating ^-^

A method for inducing cats to exercise consists of directing a beam of invisible light produced by a hand-held laser apparatus onto the floor or wall or other opaque surface in the vicinity of the cat, then moving the laser so as to cause the bright pattern of light to move in an irregular way fascinating to cats, and to any other animal with a chase instinct.

Please don’t use this with your dog. I used to play with laser pointers and my old dog and it went fucking crazy and for the rest of its life was obsessed with chasing shadows. Its a really common problem and vets are adamant that you should NEVER allow dogs to chase laser pointers cos it seems to fuck with their mind.